Don't know if this has ever been covered here on RyPN, or if it is even of interest. On the chance that it hasn't been shown previously and that perhaps one or two of you might have a bit of interest, I'll include a short photo story. In two sections!

To set the stage, a cracked rail was found in the track leading from the museums main into its passing siding. First of all, the bad section of rail was measured by the museums John LaOrange and the first photo shows member Tom Rainford cutting a replacement section of 105# rail to that length while John watches his progress.

A week goes by, and the second photo shows John removing a nut from a track bolt on the track. The break is to the right with the end of the rail section to the left.

In the 3rd photo, the broken section has been taken out revealing the break.

Cory Bennett uses the museum Backhoe to remove the section of bad rail and then in the first photo, is shown bringing the cut-to-length replacement piece over to the proper place. And....it fits! Kudo's to John for a good measuring job.

After the tie plates and joint bars are put back in place, the bolts and nuts put back in, Tom Rainford handles the nice job (!) of hand spiking the rail in place.

And this past Saturday, I went over and took a shot of the newly installed section.

These things happen and are a necessary job at a railroad museum. Thanks to those who had a hand in this project!

Nice! That seems to be a pretty common break... Most times I've seen such, it's because the joint has been loose or lacking support due to bad ties...allowing the rail to flex. It could also be due to an internal flaw in the rail...

Common defect caused by the spade bit railroad drills, have a document from either AAR or ARA discussing common rail defects and that is a perfect match. The old style spade bits tend to cause radial cracks when used. I wonder if it is because of too heavy of a hand or just endemic.

My bad! Thanks for pointing it out. The museum in this case is the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana.

Les

Larry Lovejoy

Post subject: Re: Rail replacement

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:14 pm

Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2010 9:52 pmPosts: 113Location: Pittsburgh

A common specification for drilling bolt holes requires (1) reducing the drill feed rate/pressure as when the bit is about to break through and then (2) peening or grinding the edges of the hole to eliminate burrs. These step reduce the chance of micro-crack tears in the steel developing into larger cracks that then migrate through the rail's web and up through the head as seen in the photos. Step 1 above might occasionally happen, but I’ve never actually seen anybody outside of a frog shop do the second. The only reason bolt hole cracks don’t happen more often is that the hole is usually located on the “neutral axis” of the rail, where bending stresses are generally close to zero. However, if the joint bars are ill-fitting or just plain loose, cyclic contact between the shank of the bolt and the edges of the bolt hole can initiate crack propagation. That’s why using a ‘bent” track bolt when the bolt hole doesn’t quite line up with the holes in the joint bars is generally a really bad idea.

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